PACE Human Rights Committee to consider issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan

On June 23, at the session in Strasbourg, the Bureau of the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) approved a draft resolution entitled "Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Council of Europe: what steps are taken in terms of respect for human rights?". The draft resolution has been developed by the initiative of Irish MP Michael McNamara. The PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is to monitor the issue.

In the morning of June 23, 49 deputies of the PACE supported the draft resolution, and thus, it was approved by the PACE Bureau session. This has been told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Emin Guseinov, Director of the Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), who is in Strasbourg now.

According to Emin Guseinov, "it is a small document of one page; however, it addresses the issue of non-fulfilment of previous resolutions of the PACE that raised the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan."

In particular, according to the Director of the IRFS, the document contains a reference to the resolution No. 1917, adopted at the PACE session in January 2013, on the fulfilment of the Azerbaijan's commitments to the Council of Europe. The resolution proposed to review the cases of arrested journalists and activists, since the human rights agencies questioned the lawfulness of criminal proceedings against them.